Republican House

November 09, 2012

No one has to wonder what will happen when re-elected President Barack Obama approaches the still Republican-controlled House of Representatives with tax and revenue proposals for avoiding an impending "fiscal cliff" and the improving future function of the nation's economy. What will happen is continuing demonstration that the Republican lawmakers are in thrall to radical conservative ideology that renders them incapable of bipartisan tax/revenue discussions and certainly incapable of compromise. It will be as if an election never occurred; the action is still frozen in place.

The ideological bind puts one in mind of the days when Marxists religiously followed in lock step response to every twist and turn of ideology flowing from Moscow — no matter how distanced from reality and objective evidence. The radical conservative Republican ideology flows from right-wing organizations such as Grover Norquist's Americans for Tax Reform. Just about every Republican Congressman has seen it in his or her interest to sign the ATR "no tax" pledge. No matter how distanced from reality is a pledge to deprive government of tax revenue, the House Republicans walk in lock step with the ATR no tax ideology. The punishment for breaking lock step is apparently too awful to even consider; the ATR is believed to have the power (and money) to defeat an errant House member in the next primary election.

Then there is the Tea Party, the Taliban of the Republican Party. The Tea Party goes beyond the "no tax" pledge. It is the evangelist for the revealed truth of small government, everyone-for-himself individualism, the evangelism potentiated by the right-wing radio and cable ranters. The Tea Party does not compromise; like the Taliban, the world must conform to its revealed truth and act accordingly. A sizable Tea Party contingent has been elected to the House, and its ideological intransigence hogties any possible moderate bipartisan effort. Every Republican Congressman knows that pandering to the Tea Party and its TV and radio ranters may be essential for keeping his/her seat in the next primary election.

If you do wonder what will happen when Obama puts proposals before the House, it is unlikely that the Republican House will be able to imagine any outcome in which pragmatic objectivity trumps ideology.